


Echoes of the Past

by Caruscus



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Ending, Apologies, Ben Solo - Freeform, Buckle up kids, Everybody has their own opinion on the ending of that movie, F/M, Finnpoe - Freeform, I was satisfied but not, Kinda, Reylo - Freeform, Spoilers, Star Wars - Freeform, WELL I'M GONNA CLEAR EM UP, at least closure, but they're not really big in this story, rey 'skywalker', so I'm going to fix it, some - Freeform, things that weren't cleared up at the end of the movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:33:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22054861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caruscus/pseuds/Caruscus
Summary: ***SPOILERS FOR THE RISE OF SKYWALKER***After the end of the battle against Palpatine, Ben gives his life for Rey's. This isn't the first time she's been left alone, but losing Ben was like something else entirely.But what if he hadn't left her? What if he was still with her, but in a different way?
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	Echoes of the Past

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Star Wars work so have mercy on me. I imagined this being written a couple different ways but this is how it turned out. 
> 
> Thinking of doing an actual story on the ending of this movie? Wanted to do this one-shot to see what people would think.
> 
> Let me know!

Rey thought she knew what it meant to be alone. 

She grew up without her parents--people who were in her life for such a short period of time that she barely remembers what they look like. She provided for herself, educated herself, all of which made her into who she is today. She didn't need anyone then, and she doesn't need anyone now. 

And then Kylo Ren came into her life. 

Their first encounter was anything but pleasant, after he kidnapped her and tried to pry into her mind to read her deepest and most sacred thoughts, and the second wasn't much better. 

But even after the torture, the multiple battles which ended with injuries and fatalities on more than one side, Rey started to learn who Kylo Ren truly was and how he came to be. The anger that coursed through his body and in the air around him, choking anyone within hearing distance. And once Rey started to get a hold of the Force and began to work with it, she realized she truly hadn't known anything about Kylo Ren until then. 

But if she thought Kylo Ren had changed her life, then she was truly blindsided by Ben Solo. 

A boy who had so much potential that was essentially destroyed by his own family. People that Rey had always assumed made a person happier than imaginable, people that she had longed to have her entire life. And those very people betrayed him in a way that never should have happened. 

When they touched hands in the hut on Ahch-To, Rey sensed him. The true beauty of Ben Solo drowned out the horrid image that Kylo Ren had managed to build for himself after so many years of torture and torment, and it winded her. To know that potential such as his was distinguished made her heart ache for him, and she knew that it was possible for him to come back. For Ben Solo to win the battle against Kylo Ren. 

If only she would have known the cost of winning such a battle. 

She stabbed him in a moment of blind fury, and the power she felt in that moment frightened her more than she cared to admit. She could almost hear Darth Sidious, her Grandfather, laughing behind her, happy to see what she's done. What she was becoming. 

But she refused to go there, refused to even entertain the thought. She didn't know that healing him from the fatal wound she had given him would have such an impact, that finally admitting to him she _wanted_ to take his hand, Ben's hand, would be the turning point for him. And when she had been standing there, scared beyond belief at having to kill Palpatine to save her friends but in turn taking all of the Sith lords inside of her, she hadn't expected him to be there. But he was. Reassuring her, letting her know with one simple look that he was _there_ and he wasn't going to let her fight this battle on her own, that there was another option. 

And then they had won. But she was so _tired,_ so _weak--_

And he was there. Holding her. Letting her know that he was still there, bruised and bloody and ready to heal her with what little strength he had. Ben Solo had been there for her in that moment. 

And so she kissed him. Overjoyed that he realized what he had to do, that he had finally vanquished Kylo and all that was left was _Ben, Ben, Ben._

And he _smiled._ His smile stole her breath, his second time doing that, but this time for a completely different reason. 

But before she could try to get her air back, he was gone. He had brought her back from death, using the Force to heal her in the same way she had with him, and it had taken the last of what little strength he had to accomplish that feat. 

And for the first time in two years, Rey was alone. She was the only one on the planet, her friends up in space fighting against the rest of the Empire. All that remained of Ben was Luke's discarded lightsaber and his clothing. But his body, his warmth, his wide eyes ready to take on any obstacle put in his path, had vanished. 

Rey knew that Finn and Poe would be waiting for her, probably thought her to be dead, but she couldn't move--didn't want to move. The bond she had with Ben was unlike any other, and now that he was just _gone--_

Was it love? No. At least, she didn't think it was. The kiss was a spur of the moment deal, and though she had enjoyed it, that didn't excuse who Kylo Ren was and all the horrible things he had done. 

But the feel of his arms wrapped around her frame, clutching her to his chest and deepening the kiss in one move, her heart ached at the thought of that brief moment. That brief flash of happiness in her life, when she knew for once, she wasn't _alone._

She didn't move. Not at first. She sat on that cold, hard ground for at least three minutes, just breathing and letting the events of the past hour sink in. The revelations that were made. The close encounters with death. The losses she had. 

And just when she started to feel the blackness creep into her mind, consume her thoughts and cloud her vision, she heard it. 

_"Rey."_

She blinked her eyes slowly and dragged them down to the mass of clothes that were crumpled in her fist. Had she truly heard it? Or had it been the wind? It had been so quick, so quiet that her fuzzy brain could have easily imagined it. 

_"Get up, Rey."_

Now she _knew_ she heard that one. 

She scrambled up to her feet, too fast judging by the way her vision blackened for a brief moment, and looked around for the source of the voice. It was male, low, rumbly and achingly familiar. 

She glanced down once again at her hand that was still holding fast to the black shirt that Ben left behind. Her body ached in more than one way and was threatening to fail on her at any moment, but that _voice,_ she had to know who it belonged to. 

"Who's there?" She called out, her voice echoing throughout the cavern. She called Leia's lightsaber to her hand and reached out with what little strength she had left to search through the Force to see if someone had been left behind. After finding nobody, she clipped the saber to her belt and frowned at the mysteriousness of it all. 

She bent down (slower than she cared to admit) and picked up the saber that Ben had used, staring at it for a moment. His clothes weren't the only things he left behind. 

The words she heard, that she knew she hadn't imagined, seemed to play on a continuous loop inside her head as she struggled to make her way out of the cave. _Get up, get up, get up._ As if whoever it was that had spoken was telling her not to let herself fall down again. 

Once she was outside and had a clear view of the sky, she faltered in her steps again. The destruction that littered the sky from the destroyed ships, whether they were her friends or not, stole her breath and made her fall to her knee. 

_"Keep going."_

Short. Clipped. As though the owner of the voice was annoyed with her. She gritted her teeth and pushed back up until she was standing and continued walking out of the grim area. 

She paused only briefly when she spotted the ship that Ben had obviously used to get to her, and she felt that feeling in her chest once more. It squeezed in an unpleasant way and her eyes burned from it. She decided that she would take that one and made her way to it as fast as her aching legs would take her. She strapped herself in and turned the correct dials, flipped what she needed to and before she knew it, she was in the air. 

She briefly recalled someone reaching out to her and her responding, telling them she was returning to base, but when she spotted a familiar face watching her in the reflection of the glass all previous thoughts escaped her. 

She spun around quickly, expecting to find someone there, but there was nobody. Just another reminder that she was alone.

* * *

It took an hour after she landed before she got any time to herself. People were celebrating the win against the Empire, and her friends were reassuring themselves that she wasn't dead. Finn and Poe were who she sought out first, and then after that began to make her rounds. 

Hearing that General Organa, Leia, had died was hard for Rey. She had felt something in the Force before, had suspected as much, but actually having it confirmed made it feel so much more...real. Luke was gone. Leia was gone. Ben was gone. The Skywalker's were gone. 

Maz came up to her and took her hand, smiling up at her like everything was going to be okay. 

"She wanted you to have this."

Rey watched as Maz pressed an object in her hand. She lifted it to find a pair of golden dice attached by a small gold chain sitting in her palm, and she instantly knew who they belonged to. 

"Where did you--" She started to ask, but when she looked up Maz was gone. She smiled, her first one in a long time and just barely big enough to be considered a smile, but it was a start. It was as if Leia knew she would need the reminder that she was not alone. 

* * *

"General Leia Organa was more than just a General to us. She was a leader in every sense of the word, a mother when we needed it, a confidant when we sought it." Lieutenant Kaydal Ko Connix continued to speak in front of those who had gathered for Leia's funeral.

The moon Ajun Kloss, big as it was, appeared tiny in that moment with as many people had shown up for the gathering made in Leia's honor. There was no body to bury but the thought was still there. Some of her belongings were put in a container and buried in a field of flowers, a field that was thankfully big enough to hold at least six thousand people. There were more gathered in other places on the moon watching the event as it was broadcasted.

"Rest peacefully, Princess." Kaydal finished and cast a sad look at the freshly upturned pile of dirt. 

Poe stepped up to the platform to speak next, but Rey didn't think she could take any more. She had lasted nearly an hour, but her sadness was threatening to choke her and she didn't want to let all those people see her lose control of her emotions, so she started making her way to the back. 

"Excuse me," she whispered as she pushed past a few people, casting apologetic looks their way when she disturbed them. They did not mind, they could see the way she was feeling and they felt the same. 

_"Rey."_

She paused when she was almost at the back of the crowd. She whipped her head up and glanced around, looking to see if anyone had tried to get her attention. But every person she could see was focused on Poe at the moment. She blamed it on the whispers of the wind and continued on her journey, not stopping until she was just outside the crowd and seated on a discarded box. 

She pulled out the dice that she carried safely in her pocket and held them tightly in her hand. The golden edges that poked almost painfully against her palm was a nice reminder of what was going on, a good way of keeping her grounded. 

"Rey."

She stood up so fast she saw black spots. Her saber was in her hand and ignited before she had time to breathe, her stance screaming _Attack! Attack!_

But there was nobody there.

She looked around, her breaths hard in her chest but still controlled. Once she noticed no present danger she pressed the switch on the saber and put it away, thankful that nobody in the crowd had noticed her brief lapse in sanity. 

Poe, the only one who faced her direction, was watching her but didn't falter in his words. She nodded at him in assurance that everything was okay and then he continued to focus on the people. 

"You need to learn to search through the Force before attacking. You never know who it could be."

This time she didn't hesitate when she brought her saber up and faced the forest. 

And then immediately dropped it to the ground. 

Ben stared at her, glancing between her shocked face and the lightsaber lying on the ground, still on. 

And then to her endless surprise, he bent down and picked it up before switching it off. He placed it on the box she had vacated and straightened until he could stare her down once more.

"Hello, Rey."

It was Ben. It was actually _Ben._ He stood there in front of her, not a single injury in sight. He looked rested, dressed in a white shirt and pants similar to hers with a brown overcoat. She knew without asking that he was dressed as he used to before Kylo Ren came into existence. He was dressed as someone who trained to become a Jedi. 

But with a sinking heart she noticed one other thing. As real as he was standing in front of her, as real as he was when he picked up her--Leia's--saber and put it on the box, he was not there with her. 

Ben had returned, but as a Force ghost. 

"Ben..." her words were barely loud enough for her to hear, so she doesn't know how he heard her.

His lips quirked slightly, showing that he was _amused_ by her reaction. 

"Yes."

Sudden clapping sounded behind her and the two of them looked to see Poe had finished his speech and was headed in her direction. She turned back to Ben, afraid that he would be gone, but no. He was still there. 

"You died."

Ben's face lost its smile. "I did."

Too many things had been happening to her at once. She was tired, she was mourning, and now that she was seeing Ben in front of her it only confirmed what she already knew. 

"Why did you do that?" She asked through clenched teeth as a tear streaked down her face. "Why would you give your life for mine?"

He tilted his head to the side slightly, almost as if he was confused as to why she was even asking him that. "Why did you heal me, after everything I've done to you?"

"Because I knew there was still good in you. It was wrong of me to do that to you. I never would have let you die there."

"There's always been good in you, Rey." He stepped forward and placed his hand on her cheek to swipe her tear away with his thumb. She could feel a whisper of his skin against her own, so close to being _real_ but just off enough to let her know he wasn't physically there with her. "It wasn't hard for me to do what I did. Not for you."

She shook her head, her mind warring with itself as it fought to choose between gratitude for what he did or anger for sacrificing himself like that. 

"You were the last Skywalker. You were the only one left."

He smiled again. "No, I'm not."

She was confused by his answer. She went to ask him what he meant but a sudden calling of her name behind her had her looking back towards the crowd and pulling away from Ben's touch. 

"Rey," Poe sounded out of breath as he finished pushing past the last person to get to her, "are you okay? Did you see something?"

"No, I--"

When she turned back around Ben was gone. Just the forest in front of her greeted her eyes, and once more that aching loneliness filled her chest. "No, I didn't see anything."

* * *

She didn't feel him again until it was a month after Leia's funeral and she was in the middle of teaching in her Padawans. Only three of them, it was a small beginning but she knew that with time it would grow to a much larger number. She only hoped she would be what they needed. 

"Take note of your surroundings," she instructed as she walked around them in a circle, "and feel what's going on. The Force allows you to sense things that a normal being can't pick up on."

"Like what?" Gareth, the oldest of the three at the age of 12, asked with his eyes still tightly closed. 

_"Me."_

Rey straightened, looking around the clearing that she had chosen for their lessons that day. 

Just off to the side, Ben stood patiently beneath a cluster of trees, shaded from the heat. _Did he even get hot anymore?_

"That's enough for today," she dismissed her students, not taking her eyes off of Ben in case he disappeared on her again. The kids, excited as they were to learn the ways of the Force, were even more excited to have a day of lessons cut short and took off back towards their homes without a backward glance. 

"You're back."

"You say that as though you're surprised."

She paused once she was a little less than ten feet away from him. "I am."

"Did you think I would leave you?"

She swallowed a little harder than she normally did. "Everybody does eventually."

That little grin she had grown to enjoy more and more as it appeared graced his face once more. "That's the beauty of being one with the Force. I'm never completely gone."

She frowned. "I haven't heard from you in a month. You can't fault me for thinking you had moved on."

He grew serious as his features pulled down. "I'm not leaving you, Rey. Remember that."

He stepped closer to her, towering over her in that achingly familiar way that never failed to make her pulse race and blood rush to her face. 

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes as once more he placed a calming hand on her cheek. "I don't know how I'm supposed to do this by myself."

"You won't be doing it by yourself." She thought she felt his lips against her forehead but when she opened her eyes again he was gone.

* * *

She sensed him with her throughout the following months.

When she trained with the Padawans he watched.

When she would go out with Finn, Poe and Chewie to take down the remaining Empire outposts he was there as a comforting presence in the back of her mind. 

When she was struck by a blast from the rifle of a stormtrooper, he was the one who stayed with her until backup arrived. She was in severe pain and most of that memory she's pretty sure was a hallucination, but she liked to dream that him holding her in his arms and telling her everything would be okay was real. 

When she would do her own training he would appear at random spots to tell her what she needed to improve upon, when she needed to learn to manipulate the area around her for her own use. 

When she would have trouble sleeping at night, her dreams plagued with memories that she wished she could forget, he was there. 

_"Breathe, Rey."_

_"I_ am _breathing."_

A soft chuckle, so light she would almost miss it. 

_"Does this ever happen to you?"_

_"I don't sleep."_

_"Then what do you do?"_

_"Watch over you."_

* * *

Nobody knew about Ben. She was the only one who could see him, not even Finn and Poe knew about him. Not that she'd say she was surprised. The two of them seemed too focused on giving their attention to the other. That was fine. They deserved to find their own joy and it gave her more time to be with Ben. 

It took her three months, but after a particularly harsh day of training with her Padawans, Rey realized something. 

And it seemed Ben noticed as well that she finally saw what he had been seeing all along. 

Rey paused, her grin wide as sweat dripped down the side of her face, and looked over the heads of her Padawans over to where Ben's form watched. Where he always watched. 

He was there, just as he said he would be. She still expected him to leave her at some point, but time and time again he proved her wrong. 

Her fingers ghosted over Leia's saber that rested against her hip, a reassuring reminder of her former Master. She knew what she needed to do.

* * *

It didn't take Rey very long to find Tatooine. A sand planet with two suns made for an easy find and a short journey. She made a stop at one place before heading to the planet, something that she thought surprised Ben, but he hadn't commented on it. In less than a day she arrived on Tatooine, and with a little help from BB-8, she was able to locate what used to be Luke Skywalker's home. Having been abandoned for many years, the storms had blown sand around until it was almost completely submerged. She grabbed a piece of metal from the ground and used it to slide down to the entrance of the home, her body feeling a lot lighter than it had in a long time. 

She stood and brushed off the sand, BB-8 watching curiously from where they were still perched at the top of the small slope, as she entered the home. There was not much inside, most of it had likely been scavenged when after it was first abandoned, but that was fine. She wasn't looking to take anything from the place but in fact put something back. 

She climbed back up the slope and past BB-8, a short distance from the home and crouched down. She took Luke's lightsaber out of her bag and unclipped Leia's from her side, her hands smoothing over them one last time in a goodbye. She placed the two items on the piece of cloth and wrapped them up carefully before standing to her feet. Reaching through the Force, Rey closed her eyes and concentrated on the two lightsabers, reaching through the sand until she was able to push them down into the ground. She opened her eyes and watched as the two items were covered by sand and waited until she was sure they were a good distance underground before she stopped. 

Reaching to her other side she pulled out the object she had made a detour for. Leia had told her about kyber crystals, and how they chose the person and not the other way around. Leia had always wanted her to find her own, but until the battle with the Empire was over that hadn't been possible. Though she is happy she was finally able to do it, she wished that Leia could have been there with her when it happened. 

Rey pressed the switch of her own lightsaber and the yellow blade lit up immediately. It had called to her and she knew that without a doubt it was the one she was meant to have. The hilt was made from her staff and the switch just something that she grabbed for the time being until she could find something better, but she loved it all the same. It was hers. 

A sudden movement in front of her had her standing to her feet quickly and turning her saber off. She paused when she noticed an older woman watching her while her beast of an animal stood calmly behind her. 

"There's been no one for so long." The woman called as she squinted her weathered eyes between Rey and the home behind her. "Who are you?"

Rey calmed herself. This woman was not a threat. "I'm Rey."

"Rey who?"

She paused. She didn't remember her mother and father's last name. Did she say Palpatine? She didn't want to be a Palpatine. For so long that name had meant nothing but darkness and she didn't know that she would be able change that even if she wanted to. Rey didn't have a name that she belonged to. She had nobody. 

But then she saw them. They stood off to the side and watched her with calm smiles on their faces, a peace she'd never known before filling her. Luke had his arm around Leia as they nodded at her, just once, to let her know that they had been there all along. 

And then she felt his hand. 

She glanced down to watch as Ben slipped his fingers through her own and held her hand tightly. It was the realest thing she had felt from him since that day he gave his life for hers. She looked up at his face and saw he was already watching her, encouraging her to say what she already knew. 

Rey wasn't alone. She never had been. 

She looked back at the woman with a smile. 

"Rey Skywalker."


End file.
